Assaulters from Delta‘s A Squadron preparing for a flight over Mogadishu, Somalia. The Squadron came in the day after the Battle of Mogadishu (3-4 October, 1993) to reinforce the battered C Squadron, which had been involved in the vicious hunt against the Somalian warlord Mohammed Farah Aideed.

Task Force RANGER was comprised of C Squadron, Delta Force, Bravo Company, 3rd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment, Night Stalkers from the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (160th SOAR), Combat Controllers (CCT) and Pararescuemen (PJ) from the 24th Special Tactics Squadron, and a small sniper element from SEAL Team 6.

By the end of the battle, the task force had a total of 17 killed in action and 106 wounded. The Somali death toll is estimated in the upper hundreds. Delta Force operators Master Sergeant Gary Gordon and Sergeant 1st Class Randall Shughart were posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for defending the crew of one of the downed Black Hawk helicopters.